monday, driving home from work in the sun, it was the perfect day to spend outside. nay read my mind, invited me to go down to the river with her and her son. they were to have a ritual of goodbye for the loss of a friend. i wanted sunshine and water and trees. no significant rains in a while, the river is back to clear beauty, low and burbling over the rocks. the urge to throw a boat in gone, now is time for just sitting and revelling.

the next day dharma and i go in search of the clear cut i can see across the river. we head up the steep bank and he knows of an old skid road somewhere in the bushy undergrowth. when the road is found, a grove of maple, alder and douglas fir is also, a natural amphitheatre of beauty, a small still pond with a mossy bottom, the perfect spot for a cabin in the woods. the skid road brings us to the logging road in the midst of clear-cut. we continue on the road and break off at a hill, up the hill there are fresh elk tracks, and on the other side, oh…. a ridge-line brings a view, stupendous, breathtaking. standing in the treeless land the thoughts come when you are there beholding. there is both wonder and sadness, but also a whole mix of so much in between. they have logged to within 5 meters of the river bank. thank you stephen harper for your foresight and thought of future generations. dusk is approaching as we turn south towards home and stumble upon beauty after beauty. a cliff-side moss carpet overlooking the river – a perfect spot to camp and watch the stars. then in a valley, a dark soft wet grove of enormous moss-laden old-growth fir and cedar. we wade the river in the encroaching darkness – my pants get wet in the icy thigh-high water (i thought it was only shin deep) – and finally find the way back to the trail as the moon begins to light the way.

someone had carved this into the bridge. i loved it.

so grateful am i these days for the ability to MOVE. never have i walked for pleasure in recent memory as much as i have been in the last few months. maybe it was my back going out, but it just feels like such a gift to be able to walk and wander. to lift legs over obstacles, agile as a deer. the trees are always calling too… they invite me out to meet them.

last photo by dharma. *grateful am i also for friends who are game to wander.